


Orange.

by cherishthespark



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 22:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10886088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherishthespark/pseuds/cherishthespark
Summary: Colours like to work in strange ways. Your world doesn’t just expand to a million hues once you make eye contact with your soulmate. Instead, colours fade in (or out) one by one as your relationship with your soulmate strengthens (or weakens) until you can see all the colours of the world. For now though, Alexei can only see one. Sometimes, when he’s lucky, he catches a glimpse of another, but that comes and goes and he’s yet to find out who triggers it.





	Orange.

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmate AU where you only see one colour based on your soulmate's eyes.

Alexei’s soulmate is being cute again.

It doesn’t happen every day, but at least twice a week, Alexei gets to experience another colour. Today, his soulmate’s chosen blue. He can see the blue of his car and the blue of the skies and best of all? He can see the blue of his Falconer’s jersey. That always puts him in a good mood.

He appreciates his soulmate’s choice of blue eyes, especially since he was traded to the Falconers. It makes playing a game so much easier when he can find his teammates easily without relying on the colour bands. Tonight’s game is against the Las Vegas Aces, which isn’t a problem, but sometimes jerseys like the Schooners’ are similar enough in design that Alexei has trouble distinguishing the two when he can’t see in either colour. His team has tried to make accommodations before, of course, but there’s only so much that the league allows them to do, especially for the sake of one player. Alexei’s not the only one on the team who still can’t see in full colour, but he’s the only one with an unpredictable sight.

The league allows for minor add-ons like colour bands to jerseys to help out players. It’s not much, but being able to see a brown streak, or the lack of one, usually makes it easier to find your teammates quickly. It’s a little different when you see in different colours all the time. The league says it will accommodate all players, but they certainly don’t seem to like the idea of there being pink plastered over the Falconers’ jerseys (although, in Alexei’s defense, his soulmate has only decided to go with pink _once_ ).

Colours like to work in strange ways. Your world doesn’t just expand to a million hues once you make eye contact with your soulmate. Instead, colours fade in (or out) one by one as your relationship with your soulmate strengthens (or weakens) until you can see all the colours of the world. For now though, Alexei can only see one. Sometimes, when he’s lucky, he catches a glimpse of another, but that comes and goes and he’s yet to find out who triggers it.

Perhaps he’s already met his soulmate? Or maybe they know of each other, but don’t actually know each other. Sometimes Alexei wonders if he actually has a soulmate or if he’s just imaging all the colours. It seems ridiculous to believe that his soulmate can afford the ridiculous prices of coloured contacts and decide to pay for them without even being able to benefit from them. If it weren’t for the fact that it makes no sense for him to imagine colours that he doesn’t actually know, Alexei doesn’t think he’d still believe in his soulmate. Most people meet their soulmates within the first quarter of their lives. At twenty-nine, Alexei just hopes that he’s not one of the ones that has to wait until they’re in the last half of their life. The wait’s worth it, he knows, but he’d still rather not if he doesn’t have to.

\---

Kent’s soulmate has brown eyes. He’s never seen any other colour and he wonders sometimes, why his soulmate can’t return the favour and change it up once in awhile. He navigates his contacts with labels, but for once, he’d just like to know what the colours he’s putting on eyes look like.

Not that he blames his soulmate (well, secretly, he sort of does, but then he’d be a jerk, so it’s just that he can’t say it _out loud_ , but whatever). Contacts are expensive as fuck and maybe his soulmate just doesn’t have the resources to get them. It’s okay, Kent can content himself with brown until he meets him.

Kent used to wish he saw in blue. When he was in juniors, he used to think that the universe made a mistake. He felt _it_ . The connection you say you feel when you meet your soulmate, he _felt it._ The way they worked together on the ice… there’s no way that wasn’t what the soulmate connection felt like.

In hindsight, Kent probably should have realized that it was stupid to hope. There’d been no hint of blue when they became linemates. No hint of blue when he stayed over during the summer and certainly no hint when they’d hooked up—the several times they’d hooked up. The universe hadn’t made a mistake, but Kent… he didn’t give up that easily. He’ll find his soulmate. That’ll show _him_ and the universe for trying to make a fool of Kent Parson.

They say that you can expedite the colour process if you sleep with your soulmate upon first meeting. It’s frowned upon to have sex upon, but Kent’s not ashamed to say he’s tried it. The older he gets, the lonelier he feels. In his twenty-five years, Kent’s slept with a lot of people, but it’s never worked. He wonders if it’s because it doesn’t actually work, or if out of the many people he’s decided to have sex with, not one of them happens to be his soulmate.

There’s nothing for it he supposes. The most Kent can do is continue what he’s doing. He can hope that he’ll somehow find his soulmate within a slew of hook-ups and he can hope that his soulmate won’t be mad at him for being unfaithful.

He can hope that his soulmate catches on to what he’s been posting and seeks him out.

\---

It happens before Alexei can stop it. In Alexei’s book, Aces hockey isn’t the cleanest there is, but there are still lines that you don’t cross. “Ох блядский мудак! You liking hit like that so much?? Huh??? I can hit too!” Alexei’s picked up Kent by the scruff of his neck like he’s a kitten before he can realize what’s happened.

Orange.

He drops Kent like a hot potato. Distantly, he hears, “ _Come on,_ Tater tot…” Alexei though, he only has eyes for the little rat who’s rushed Snowy. He must still look like he wants to kill Parson on the spot because Thirdy comes and guides him away before he can do much else.

Could… Is it possible… but then…

Alexei’s not sure when he first met Kent Parson. In fact, he’s not sure if they’ve ever actually been formally introduced. There probably isn’t a player in the NHL who doesn’t know who Kent Parson is. Alexei’s just lucky that with today’s technology, it’s easy enough to do research on his… potential soulmate?

He finds his Wikipedia and his NHL page (5’10”? Who are they kidding?), but it doesn’t tell him anything about Kent as a person. His Twitter account is ridiculously sparse for what he’s heard about Kent’s personality and his Instagram account…

Maybe Kent just really like how he looks? There’s almost a thousand posts under his account and as far as Alexei can tell, they’re _all_ selfies. Is there actually an explanation for this, or is his soulmate actually so conceited that he can’t take a picture of anything else?

Over the next week though, Alexei finds that he can’t stop himself from returning to Kent’s Instagram. His soulmate—no, his _potential_ soulmate is pretty (and hot), Alexei can give him that at least. He’s staring straight into the camera in a lot of the photos, sometimes with his eyes wide open and sometimes with them half-lidded.

By all accounts, none of this makes sense. Alexei’s done a little snooping (namely asking his teammates) and those who know Parson say that he’s not as self-obsessed as he would appear. In fact, evidence points to him being much more into his cat than himself. Kit Purrson’s instagram is proof.

So, the next time they play the Aces, Alexei manages to slam Kent into the boards and hold on for a couple more seconds than strictly necessary because… because it’s there again. He’d made sure to keep his eyes open just in case, and it seems, there’s no use denying it any longer because he can feel orange seep into his vision again.

\---

“Little Aces Captain!” Kent swivels around when he hears the call and stares wide-eyed as all 6’4” of Alexei comes lumbering up to him in the parking lot of the Aces arena. Troy, who had snagged a ride from Kent earlier that morning, just whispers hotly,

“What’s Mashkov doing? He already checked you into the boards hard enough to have bruises for days, he doesn’t need to come and beat you up more!”

“I don’t even know what I did!” Kent glares back from over the hood of the car before quickly turning to face Alexei again. “What—

“What do you want, Mashkv? You already won the game.” Troy cuts him off.

“I’m visit Little Aces Captain! He always post Kit Purrson on Instagram! I’m want to meet!” Alexei smiles what he hopes is a convincing smile that doesn’t at all look like a ploy to get some alone time with Kent.

“What?” Kent asks, “You want to meet Kit?” He raises his eyebrows suspiciously. This _has_ to be a ploy to get him alone.

“Yes! Most famous cat in all NHL, da? I’m must meet.”

‘Wow,” Troy mutters, “Are you for real, Mashkov?”

“Of course am real! Call me Tater. We be friends off ice. I’m not hit if not on ice.”

Kent looks helplessly at Troy, who shrugs, the fucker, and sighs. “Well, get in then Mashkov. I’ll drop Troy off first.”

“What about dinner?” Troy interjects. “Are we still grabbing a bite to eat because I wasn’t kidding when I said I have no food at home.”

Kent grits his teeth as he wills for Troy to shut up. It’s no use because the boy has never been able to catch a hint. “Sure,” he tries to glare at Troy without Mashkov noticing before plastering a smile on his face. “That cool with you, Mashkov?”

“Of course!”

They end up at a diner a couple blocks from Troy’s place. Kent is tempted to make him walk home, but no, he’s a good captain so he’ll drive his idiot of a winger home before entertaining Mashkov at his own place. He really hopes that ‘meeting Kit’ isn’t code for ‘beat up the Aces Captain’, or worse, for a _talk_. He knows it’s coming. There was no mistaking it during the game.

The three of them are sitting in a booth together and Mashkov and Troy seem to be getting along just fine. Mashkov happened to score a goal against the Aces tonight and even Kent has to admit that it was a glorious one.

“Hey Mashkov,” Troy asks suddenly. “Is it true that the Falconers’ colour bands are just because of you?”

“Oh,” Alexei visibly deflates and spares a quick glance to Kent.

“Smitty mentioned it once,” Troy offered, then grimaced. Smitty was a defenseman that had been on the Falconers before getting traded around and ending up on the Aces. He was rather vocal about his hatred for the Falconers.

“He complain, da?” Alexei grimaced before hiding it. “Never liked changing band always. Say is hassle.”

“You can’t control that though!” Jeff gasps. “You haven’t even met your soulmate. Smitty can’t expect you to have control over your eyes.”

“Is okay,” Alexei says. “Smitty not Falconer anymore.”

“Swoops, you done asking Mashkov questions? I’m sure Mashkov’s got a curfew and he’s still got to meet Kit.” Kent butts in. They’re getting uncomfortably close to a topic of conversation that Kent really doesn’t want to participate in. The sooner he gets it over with, the sooner he can wallow in self-pity.

\---

“So this is Kent Parson home?” Alexei smiles. He’s not sure exactly what he’d been expecting, maybe something a decorator put together for a magazine spread, or maybe a mish mash of furniture befitting of a man who’d left home still a teenager and hadn’t ever bothered to spruce up his place afterward.  Instead, he’s got a house that looks well put together and actually lived in. He’s got a house that feels like a home and when Kit comes up to inspect the new visitor, Alexei can’t help but coo.

Kent stares wide-eyed as Kit curls herself around Alexei’s legs and allows herself to be picked up. “Wha…?” Kent mutters. He steps forward but pauses when he realizes that he doesn’t even know what he wants to do, pull Kit away? It’s entirely mind-boggling considering Kit doesn’t like anyone else other than him. In fact, it took Swoops almost a year of bribing her before she stopped trying to scratch him every time he got near.

To voluntarily have Kit walk up to him with no prompting whatsoever… “Maybe I have magic. Make kitty like me.” Alexei smiles and strokes his hand over Kit’s head again to her purrs.

“Right, right.” Kent resists the urge to glare at his cat’s betrayal and focuses on Alexei instead. Neither of them say anything. Alexei keeps stroking Kit and Kent flicks his eyes away.

“Why are you here, Mashkov?” Kent sighs and looks back up.

“I think if Kent Parson think hard, he know why,” Alexei swipes his free hand through his hair and scratches the back of his neck.

“Mashkov…” Kent looks away.

“You see too. Tonight. You see too.” Kit squirms and Alexei carefully sets Kit down and she scurries away, as if sensing the tension.

“See what?” Kent throws his hands up, “See stars? You already hit me hard enough to bruise for days.”

Alexei mutters under his breath too quietly for Kent to hear. “See orange!” He cries and quickly steps forward, taking Kent’s hands and gripping them tightly before he can protest. “Please, Kent Parson, I know it to be you.”

“I…”

“I’m not imagine. Is sign of soulmate.” Alexei stares into Kent’s eyes. “ _Please,_ ” he pleads.

The world seeps into colour as Kent slides his eyes shut.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't posted (or written, really) fic in ages, so I hope this turned out okay and I didn't have too many glaring mistakes or anything. I've been trying to get back into writing and fic is always good exercise, so let me know what you think!
> 
> (Also, picking up Kent like a kitten and dropping him like a potato? Totally for my own amusement. It doesn't feel like it particularly fit, but I liked it too much to change it.)


End file.
